Highway 62 Danny Thompson

Summary
Ash Maharaj, owner of the Harmony Motel, shares the history and significance of motels and the Harmony Motel in the Joshua Tree area. The motel was built in 1958 and has a mid-century design with a large courtyard and open windows. The name 'Harmony' comes from the musical notes on the sign. The motel gained fame when the band U2 stayed there during the making of their Joshua Tree album. Other notable guests include Snow Patrol and the filming of the movie 'Crazy Beautiful'. Ash Maharaj, originally from South Africa, came to the US in 2000 and decided to stay after the tragic loss of her mother. She purchased the Harmony Motel in 2004 and has been running it successfully for 20 years. Ash, the owner of Harmony Motel, discusses the challenges and rewards of owning a small motel in a small town. She talks about the unique experience of meeting people from all over the world and learning about different cultures. Ash also shares the economic challenges she faced, including the 2008 crash and the rise of Airbnb. Despite the challenges, she appreciates the freedom and flexibility of being her own boss. Ash emphasizes the importance of booking directly through the motel's website to support small businesses.
Takeaways
Motels originated in the US as convenient and accessible accommodations along highways.
The Harmony Motel, built in 1958, has a mid-century design and is known for its musical notes on the sign.
The motel gained fame when U2 stayed there during the making of their Joshua Tree album.
Ash Maharaj, the owner of the Harmony Motel, has successfully run the business for 20 years. Owning a small motel allows you to meet people from all over the world and learn about different cultures.
Running a small business requires constant adaptation to economic challenges, such as market fluctuations and competition.
Being your own boss provides freedom and flexibility, but also comes with the responsibility of marketing and maintaining the business.
Booking directly through the motel's website helps support small businesses by avoiding high commissions from third-party booking platforms.
Harmony Motel Website for Booking
https://www.harmonymotel.com/
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/harmonymotel/

In this episode I seit down with Author William Hillyard, author of " Welcome To Womder Valley - Ruin And Redemption In An American Galapagos" 
     

In this episode I talk to Heather Basile, owner of The Mojave Moon Apothecary in Twentynine Palms California.
Check out her shop HERE
 
Be sure to check out The Highway 62 youtube channel HERE
 

In this episode I sat down at The Out There Bar in 29 Palms with Author , Chris Campion and Out There Bar owner , Ian Riekow to talk about the new deluxe art book projectabout the lost Sci-Fi film, Saturation 70. The story of this film is an incredible one and the book that's coming looks to be amazing...You can back the project on kickstarter. 
 
Kickstarter HERE
Chris Campion website HERE

In this episode I soeak with Matt Beurois who is the Program Director of The Yucca Valley Film Festival. Now in it's 5th year, The Yucca Valley Film Festival features some of the best indipendant films of the year. This event is sponsored by the city of Yucca Valley and is 100% free to the public. 
The event takes plav=ce November 10th 11th and 12th 
go to their website for details HERE
 
anny (00:00.914)
All right, Matt Beurois, thank you so much for joining me on the Highway 62 podcast. How are you?
Matt Beurois | YVFF (00:09.187)
I'm very good. Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure. I love the podcast and very happy to be here.
Danny (00:13.679)
Thank you Yeah, I you know when I was
looking at the name and I'm always looking at somebody's last name like okay how am I gonna pronounce and you know just not having spoke to you at all I was like oh it's like Matt Berrios or something like that so when I asked you and you hit me I was like oh okay and offline we were just talking about Paris and I was just saying how I've met so many people out here from France lately it's crazy but so and you are would you say the director of the Yucca
Matt Beurois | YVFF (00:22.783)
How do you pronounce that?
Matt Beurois | YVFF (00:39.423)
Yeah, yeah.
Danny (00:48.048)
Thanks for watching!
Matt Beurois | YVFF (00:48.651)
I would say program director. My job is to find the movies, yeah, the UK Film Festival, I find the movies, I find the filmmakers. We have a very small team and my job is to get people into town to attend the festival.
Danny (00:50.742)
Program Director of the Yucca Valley Film Festival.
All right.
Danny (01:05.346)
Wonderful. Yeah, so we'll come back and hit all the.
the good details of the film festival, but I would love to hear a little bit more about your background, you're a film director yourself. I just like the end credits of The Barn are on my TV at the moment. I was going to watch over the weekend and I wasn't able to do it, so I was kind of getting through it today. I need to re-watch it. I was working a little bit today as I had it on. So, but yeah, give us the...
Matt Beurois | YVFF (01:17.155)
Yeah.
Matt Beurois | YVFF (01:23.938)
Oh.
Matt Beurois | YVFF (01:32.974)
It's...
Danny (01:37.59)
the rundown of where you're from and how you came to be out here.
Matt Beurois | YVFF (01:41.545)
It's a journey. It's definitely a journey. So I'm a director, producer, filmmaker. I made a lot of short films.
like 25-ish, a little bit more than that probably. And the last short film I directed and produced was a huge hit in Los Angeles and the US, and Asia and Europe, everywhere except France. So that was a French doc comedy with very famous people in France, and we got like 68 awards worldwide.
Danny (02:08.717)
Hahaha
Matt Beurois | YVFF (02:20.375)
everywhere except France and the first one we got
Danny (02:22.434)
Hahaha!
Matt Beurois | YVFF (02:24.887)
was the best international short film in a festival in Los Angeles. And that was the first award I ever had and I was the only French people in the room, only French guy in the room and I just got that small statue in my hands and it was like okay this is where I need to be, this is where I want to be. So that small success gave me the fuel and the will to
Danny (02:30.163)
Oh wow.
Danny (02:36.432)
Hehehe
Danny (02:44.276)
Yeah.
Matt Beurois | YVFF (02:52.851)
to change a whole lot of things in my life. And to basically, it took a couple of years, but then to move to the US, get the visa, and then later on get the green card and move to Yekavalli. First Los Angeles, then Burbank, then Yekavalli. And once we arrived in Yekavalli with my wife, we...
Danny (03:02.951)
Mm-hmm
Matt Beurois | YVFF (03:13.627)
Our business is to make film festivals. We have a bunch of them. We have some in California. We still have two, three in France. We have one in Nashville. We have business ties in New Mexico, in the US

In this episode i went to visit Seth Zaharias at his house , " Sethspool" out in Joshua Tree California. Seth runs Cliffhanger Guide services along with his wife, Sabra. What started out as 10k and a dream has turned into the largest climbing guide service in what as known as one of the worlds top rock climbing destinations. Along with running the guide service, Seth promotes emersive events in the Morongo Basin area. He is an old school Joshua Tree OG having moved here 24 years ago. He has a great take on the exponential growth that the area has seen as well as the health of the tourism market. 
VIDEO VERSION of this episode is available on youtube HERE
Visit Cliffhanger Guide Services HERE